A new report indicates that the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are “dark horses” for Carmelo Anthony if he chooses to continue playing next season.
Sean Deveney of Heavy.com noted that the 37-year-old Anthony is likely to play at least one more year, with the Heat a potential destination for the well-traveled veteran.
“Two other East teams were mentioned as darkhorses: The Celtics and Heat,” Deveney wrote.
“Anthony certainly would be amenable to a season in Miami, playing with veterans like Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, as well as Bam Adebayo. ‘That is one place I could see both sides saying it makes sense,’ a Western Conference executive said. ‘But only if Miami makes a trade. They have a lot of young guys who need minutes and they have to figure out how that will be sorted. If it is Melo (Anthony) or, say, Caleb Martin, they’re going to keep building up Martin.'”
Anthony played this season with the Los Angeles Lakers, joining close friend LeBron James. However, chemistry issues and injuries problems doomed the veteran-heavy team, which missed out on the postseason.
In contrast, the Heat are currently one game away from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals and finished the 2021-22 regular season with the best record in the conference.
If Anthony does indeed take the court next season, it will mark his 20th NBA campaign. He was drafted in 2003 as the third overall pick by the Denver Nuggets before then being dealt to the New York Knicks during the 2010-11 season.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, Anthony has played for four different teams. While he very well might return to play for the Lakers again, other teams such as the Knicks and Brooklyn Nets are also reportedly in the mix.
This season, Anthony played in 69 games for the Lakers, starting in three of those contests. He averaged 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
While Anthony would presumably not be an integral piece of next year’s Heat lineup, he’d likely offer the team a veteran presence over the course of the year. Of course, until he’s actually wearing a Heat uniform, all such talk is simply speculation.